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Environmentalist League for Psionic Harmony (ELPH)
The great project of our time must be to see through the eyes of our innermost spirit; to wholly transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that emerged with the avarice of imperialism. - Madam X, The Ecology of Harmony (3188) Summary The Environmentalist League for Psionic Harmony (ELPH) are a covert syndicate of ex-students with MES who left the psionic academy on Mona to join the UPC's revolutionary cause. United around a fanatic concern for the natural environment of all planets in the sector, which they believe to be in a state of ongoing crisis due to the endless resource extraction by mega-corporations and imperial houses. They are wholly devoted to this cause and stop at nothing to achieve their goals, risking their own mental and physical well-being without a second thought, but most of them have little interest in actually holding political power. Instead, members of the ELPH believe only the free association of mankind and the complete dismantling of all human-created technology will help to re-establish an indescribable state of supreme ecologic and spiritual harmony, termed as "Psionic Harmony." Notable Members: * Nova X, ELPH insurgent * Eros X 'Lovecraft', Fist of CSS * Lapis X, ELPH initiate * Nua'lan X, ELPH initiate * Ocelotl X, ELPH initiate Recent Develoments: * The initiation of Eros X 'Lovecraft' * Eros X journey to the spirit realm * The conversion of ex-Serpens Lapis X * Nua'lan's journey into the spirit realm Ideological Theory Neo-Animism, Shamanism, and Spiritual Reincarnation At the center of the ELPH ideology stands a set of vague Neo-animistic religious beliefs that claim all celestial bodies are living beings, with a supernatural and spiritual nature beyond their physical characteristics. In particular, life-bearing planets are said to have a unique spirit and personality that extends out from the core of the planet to its biosphere and manifests itself in the climate, geology, indigenous species and so forth of the planet. The spirit of a "healthy" planet reaches out from its core to connect with to the spirit of every living being on the surface and sustain natural life, whereas a "sickly" planet has an atmosphere incapable of sustaining natural life. Based on these religious doctorines, it is determined that when a plant or animal dies the spirit simply returns to the planet's surface and may eventually be reincarnated into another living being. However, this cycle is disturbed by aggressively digging into the planet's surface, emitting toxicants into the air or water, changing the climate patterns and geography of the atmosphere, or any other sort of industrial activity which would somehow pollute the environment. As the ELPH understands it this spiritual disruption also causes the modern condition of MES, which can simply be perceived as an irregular and imbalanced spiritual connection between the individual and the planet's spirit, making them subject to violent explosion without careful meditation and herbal therapy. In order to permanently resolve this imbalance they believe any and all advanced human industry must be thoroughly demolished so that mankind can learn to integrate with the natural state of the planet. When this is transformation is completed on a large enough cluster of star systems, over a long enough period of time the, ELPH expect it will bring about a "Psionic Harmony" through which the spirits of those celestial bodies will be able to connect across space, and children will no longer be born with MES as it is observed now, but all living beings born in the harmony will inherit a shared, non-verbal telepathic communication among other minor psionic abilities. Green Anarchy and Anti-Imperialism Drawing upon the historical materialist framework put forth by Madam X, the ELPH insurgents claim that the currently existing imperial society and government was developed to manage and protect the highly advanced human industry that is used to accumulate more and more material goods, in the interest of a profiteering cycle that is ultimately self-destructive. Furthermore, since these industrial processes are so clearly and incredibly destructive to the vast majority of the population and the environment, those few who do stand to benefit much from these advanced technologies use them to maintain equally destructive social hierarchies that will prevent and crush a mass uprising. Once the social and political structures of the empire itself are dismantled, the ELPH hypothesize that most imperial citizens, the peasantry and so forth who directly experience the negative consequences of industrial profiteering, will naturally abandon this destructive materialist lifestyle to return instead to a hunter-gatherer subsistence with free association. The deconstruction of social hierarchy also allows people to follow their own intended path as guided by the "natural cycle," and thus restore the Psionic Harmony which will then mend all temporary conflicts that arise in the period immediately following the destruction of the empire through the experience of shared universal telepathy. E.L.P.H. Perspective on sentient, non-human entities In direct opposition to the High Church, ELPH embrace the presence of alien life in the sector and deeply regret the early genocidal conflict that killed and displaced so many of them (although the ELPH and their neo-animist religious beliefs had not been developed at that time). They believe that all indigenous alien species must have been in a state of Psionic harmony before the presence of humans and mass industry in the sector, and thus only by heading the guidance of the aliens will humanity be able to finally reconcile their differences with the native spirits and transcend their own propensity for violence and destruction. Following in the footsteps of their founding member, Madam X, all ELPH insurgents must undergo a pilgrimage to meet and fraternize with aliens in some form or another. They also undergo an initiation process to abandon their old name and identity, replacing their last name with an X to express the interconnected nature of their collective spirits. However, despite their shared respect for aliens the ELPH religion has very little in common with the next most common religion of the sector, the Church of Humanity Repentant. Madam X absolutely detested the presence of synthetic life and was quite open in her hostility to their claims of equality. Even simple cybernetics are an unholy manifestation of human industrial aspiration in the eyes of the neo-Animist ideologues, anyone who truly relies on such technology only creates a barrier to achieving the Psionic Harmony. Despite how convincing their mannerism may be, a synth cannot have a soul because they have no connection to the spirit of the planets and rely upon spiritually disruptive industrial processes to survive and reproduce. Furthermore, since they were invented and constructed by the nobles of House Cygnus, so they must surely follow the fundamentally counter-revolutionary nature of their overlords through a plethora of subtle and subconscious motives. The ELPH is dogmatically insistent that the synth uprising is an inevitability so long as synths are allowed to congregate freely, and while they deeply mourn the passing of the ordinary, innocent humans that were killed as a consequence of noble feuding, they do not hold any sympathy for the loss of synthetic life or the destruction of the house responsible for creating it. All that said, for practical purposes Nova X and the rest of the ELPH insurgents maintain an uneasy alliance with the synths and pro-synth organizations of the UPC, recognizing that they need the support of the strongest revolutionary coalition in the sector in order to achieve any of their goals. To avoid any possibility of synth infiltration within the ELPH they restrict their membership exclusively to those with MES, and they expect that once the empire is successfully overthrown, the next step is to utilize the unique talents of their all-psychic membership to find and eliminate every last synth on in sector. Revolutionary Praxis Internal organization The ELPH have very few organizing principles, all of which are used to maintain their secretive tight-knit MES-exclusive membership. Technically they have no leadership either, maintaining strict equality among all fellow insurgents through their belief in absolute equality among the spirit, and relying upon popular consensus to make all their decisions (only doing what everyone agrees to do). They meet once every month to discuss and make any necessary decisions before dispersing again throughout the common populace, and usually they only grow their numbers and popularity through word-of-mouth. Revolutionary strategy Believing firmly in the potential of spontaneous insurrection by the disorganized masses, ELPH operatives are often far less concerned with actually building working class power and organization, instead opting quite infamously to commit sudden acts of "propaganda by deed" (most would consider them acts of terrorism) which are meant to inspire other radicals among the working class to also commit similar "heroic deeds" against their imperialist oppressors. Assassinating politicians, suicide bombings on oil extractors, destroying starships full of valuable cargo and so on. Their Psionic capabilities make them particularly dangerous as they can strike and disappear without a trace. However as much they claim to target only those who deserve it (pretty much just nobles and CEOs) they've had a few instances in the past where a couple unknowing bystanders were also killed in the sudden violence, giving them a very contentious relationship with the working class as a whole. Of course some of these terrorist attacks were not even committed by the ELPH, but from the perspective of the Psionic academy for instance any sort of violence can be safely pinned on "the organized religious extremists hell-bent on destroying society as we know it." As a part of their recent affiliation with the UPC they have more or less stopped committing this type of spontaneous and uncoordinated violence, but you can more or less expect every proposal brought to the floor by the ELPH to be as risky as it is bloodthirsty, much to dismay of more moderate and nonviolent groups within the party, yet they are still a valuable asset to the UPC as a whole. "Spirit Healing" and alternative MES Treatment For as capable as they are at suddenly blowing things up, the ELPH also plays a vital role as trained and experienced biopsionic healers, or "spirit healing" as they call it. Utilizing a combination of advanced biospionic techniques and homeopathic/psychedelic drugs, ELPH healers can help people recover from physical and mental trauma for little to no cost, without the need for hospitalization. As such their reputation among criminals and commoners is far more complex than simply the "terrorist threat" that the Empire perceives them as. On Yakiyah there are dozens of ELPH agents living isolated in the wilderness, giving treatment to peasants who desperately need healing and cannot afford to visit a hospital will seek out their mysterious healing camps. The ELPH is in fierce opposition to the MES medicines produced by Serpens on Hroa, and repeatedly insists that they can somehow be used to manipulate the spirit energy of any psychics who use them, resulting in a long list of negative side effects. Instead, all ELPH agents are encouraged to use the "MES mediation stones," taken from the academy on Mona. Category:UPC Factions